The invention relates to toilets. More particularly, the invention relates to dry portable toilets.
There are situations where ordinary plumbed toilets are difficult or impossible to install. These include construction sites, public events, campers, water and aircraft, and houses where water is not available. Products sold to fill these niches run the gamut from plastic pails to full bathrooms plumbed in such a way as to collect waste in holding tanks for later disposal. All of these devices have drawbacks related to unpleasantness during use and or emptying of holding tanks.
During use, users are often confronted by the sight of feces in holding tanks directly under the toilet seat. As air travelers are aware, some flushable toilets recycle a blue liquid to conserve water. Lower price devices with bags require the user to insert and subsequently seal individual bags.
Holding tanks must be emptied at special facilities prepared to deal with such waste. The task is unpleasant enough that some boaters, and campers will avoid using their on-board toilets to avert the displeasing task of cleaning the so-called black water holding tanks. Furthermore, holding tanks must be purged and cleaned and have chemicals added to prevent the buildup of bacteria and odor problems. Moreover there are strict laws governing the dumping of holding tanks.
There are several patents that include bag systems, including some that use a continuous tube feed systems from annular dispensers under the seat. Many of these have rather complicated mechanical systems that dispense bags, flatten them and seal them. In all cases, moving machinery in such close proximity to delicate body parts is not comforting.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,452,368 is representative of a group of patents, many of which are improvements on it. It is a box, fitted with a toilet seat and a dispenser for an elongated tube of plastic film. A system of articulated levers, springs and rollers manage the dispensing and sealing of the plastic. The disadvantage of this family of patents is the complicated mechanisms required to manage the plastic film. Some of these systems twist the plastic to close it and some use heat sealing techniques.
An alternative configuration is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,134 in which a waste-receiving bag is opened to receive waste and then temporarily closed until the next use whereupon it is opened again.
In a separate art, a rotary bagging system has been proposed for disposal of diapers and related waste. An example of this is found in US Pregrant Publication 2005/0115207.